Why LGBT People Should Be Conservative

Theryn Meyer's "Why LGBT People Should Be Conservative" is a fascinating read, which reveals some inconvenient truths about the Leftists. I won't go so far as Meyer does to say LGBT people should be conservative, but they should definitely be on the fence between the Left and Right. (Then again, she is in Canada, so the definitions of Left and Right can be moved about 10 feet towards the Left. Or is that 10 meters towards the Left?)

Meyer's story begins:

Growing up a gender-atypical child in the politically broken and culturally fragmented country of South Africa, social acceptance and even basic tolerance was often hard to come by. Dealing with the growing pains of adolescence as an unworldly teenager is challenging enough. But doing so in the lonely corner after being shunned by everyone in the room – your family, your friends, your community, your tribe – can make life for a queer kid seem unbearable at times.

In this vulnerable state, liberalism offered me what I so desperately wished for. Not only was I accepted for who I am, but I was celebrated for that which makes me different.

Right there, Meyer gets at the whole appeal of the Left to the LGBT community: It isn't just acceptance for who you are, but celebration of it. That is pretty powerful when you come from somewhere that doesn't accept you, for whatever reason.

So when faced with the Left celebrating your sexual identity, versus the Right where some elements, specifically religious elements, tend to reject you being anything other than heterosexual, it is easy to know which way to go.

Meyer continues:

As I grew into adulthood, however, I soon realized that Mother Left’s generous promises of inclusion, acceptance, and shelter, were highly conditional. I was welcomed as a nestling as long as I parroted the leftist script of big government, open borders, gun control, and the insidious subversion of Western values.

It sounds almost like a cult. We accept you for who you are...as long as you support what we want, as Meyer describes:

At face value, I was allowed to be myself; a little gay boy, and eventually a transgender woman. But as soon as I was simply Theryn Meyer, with my own unique ideas and beliefs oft-contrary to the leftist script, I was branded a bigot and swiftly booted from Mother Left’s cushy liberal roost.

It is basically the same treatment blacks get from the Left: You are only black as long as you support our views, and then you are an "Uncle Tom" (even though the original meaning of "Uncle Tom" had absolutely nothing to do with political beliefs).

Then Meyer really hits the strong case for why LGBT people should be conservative:

Nevertheless, the account of my expulsion from liberalism only tells half the story of how I find myself here today; a male-to-female transgender conservative. I certainly do hold these political convictions in part because conservatives seem to be the only ones who care about the mass importation of rabidly anti-LGBT cultures...

Say what you will about Christians, but at least they are not so blinded by multiculturalism that they cannot see the dangers of Islam to Western culture and values. And Islam is arguably one of the most rabidly anti-LGBT belief systems in the world.

To be honest, the aspect of Western civilization which makes it tolerant to LGBT people is derived from Christianity's "love thy neighbor" belief, even if some on the Christian Right seem to have forgotten this was one of the two most important laws of Christianity.

Regardless, it is the Western values of our culture upon which both LGBT people and Christians can agree and find common ground politically.

In addition, Meyer adds another common value:

...and also because they seem to be alone in their concern for gay and trans people’s right to self-defense. 

I am reminded of this which came out after the Orlando shooting:

LGBT people have been targets of violence for millennia. Why shouldn't they have the right to self-defense? Of course, the Left believes only the government should be armed, which works in opposition to the needs of LGBT people. They should just wait for the police to arrive while they are being massacred, same as everyone else. Perfect equality!

But then Meyer mentions something which makes me think she is a bit more libertarian than conservative:

Characteristic of the left is to spew incessant streams of demands for the inclusion of, and the affording of various entitlements to, sexual minorities. They claim by fiat things like same-sex marriage and the use of washrooms that correspond to a person’s gender identity, to be “fundamental human rights.” But what is not quite as characteristic is to bring up, or acknowledge the existence of, any responsibilities that LGBT minorities may have to the society in which they seek tolerance and integration.

As a trans person, I recognize that I am an abnormality; an anomaly that makes up a minute fraction of the population. In a sense, I am an ‘outsider’. And much like if I were to move to Japan in hopes of being accepted as Japanese into the culture of the country, there are certain responsibilities that come with being an outsider seeking acceptance as an included member.

As an immigrant to Japan, I won’t gain acceptance by refusing to speak Japanese, and demanding of the natives to learn English so as to accommodate me. I won’t gain any tolerance by refusing to take my shoes off at the door when entering a Japanese household, and I’ll never be considered “one of us” by Japanese people if I try to push my western customs onto others at every opportunity.

Similarly, LGBT people will never obtain the acceptance they want by forcing a church by law to marry a same-sex couple; they will never achieve tolerance by decreeing a new definition of gender and mandating the use of manufactured pronouns; and they will never be understood as ‘one of us’ by the mainstream culture through lecherous public displays of erotic smut known as “pride parades.”

Conservatives like myself aren’t hesitant to just any kind of change. Moreover, we aren’t cautious of change simply for it’s own sake. Instead, we resist authoritarian and politically motivated revisions to the fundamental principles, customs and institutions that threaten to destabilize and even destroy the fabric of our prosperous western civilization. Traditional marriage, the nuclear family, and even the notorious “cisnormative, heteronormative gender binary,” aren’t institutions constructed simply to oppress women and minorities. Instead they form, in part, a framework of order, structure, and coherence upon which a society can operate functionally.

In truth, there are many "conservatives" who are actually "libertarians", but don't know it because all the mainstream media covers is conservatives and liberals (who should actually be called progressive socialists because traditional liberals would more properly be called "traditional conservatives" today).

Regardless of how we label our ideologies, does make a valid point that any minority group could apply:

Respect is a two-way street. Being reasonable, and using patience and perceptiveness to convince the common populace that you as a trans or gay person do not in fact pose a fundamental threat as an “outsider,” and that you are “one of them,” will get you much further than flinging accusations of homophobia and transphobia at every person who refuses to submit to your every whim.

This is why I reject the identity politics of the Left, and is also one of the big causes of our polarized politics today. Allowing yourself to be placed on a pedestal is the opposite of treating your neighbor with respect, and it will come back to bite you eventually. In a free society, nobody is entitled to a pedestal. Or as Meyer describes it so perfectly:

Eventually, once tolerant people will become fed up with their continued demonization and the systematic overthrow of their culture by a small minority of moral elites, and they will lash back with genuine intolerance – which is why the LGBT community is its own worst enemy.